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took his SATs in high school he did a practice drive to the test site to ensure he arrived on time. He<br />
did this the day before his physical test for the FBI. During his first few weeks at the Bureau he<br />
created a meticulous map of the entire office, labeling who everyone was and what he needed to<br />
know about them.<br />
This obsessive planning came home with him. He told his wife, Sabrina, that the couple needed a<br />
code word they could use in case anything ever went wrong. “‘Quicksand,’” he told her. “That’s the<br />
word we use with each other if we’re ever in trouble: ‘quicksand.’” And when the cybercrime boys<br />
went out drinking, Tarbell texted ahead to let freckled Meg know how many people to expect. Nothing<br />
like planning a party at a dive bar.<br />
On this particular night as many as fifty government employees were at the Whiskey Tavern to<br />
celebrate the capture of the LulzSec crew. As Tarbell sat there licking the taste of pickles and<br />
whiskey off his lips, Tom Brown, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.<br />
who would end up prosecuting the LulzSec hackers, wandered over.<br />
“So, Tarbell,” Tom said, preparing to ask a question that had been plaguing him all day. “What’s<br />
next? Who are we going after next?”<br />
Tarbell looked back, annoyed. He had just spent the past few months of his life working twentyhour<br />
days trying to take down LulzSec, and Tom was already badgering him about the next target.<br />
“Come on,” Tarbell said. “We just fucking finished a case. Can’t we just celebrate first?”<br />
“Of course you can,” Tom replied glacially, taking a short sip from his drink, “but I just wanted<br />
to see what we were going to do after that.”<br />
Tom was clearly baiting Tarbell and already knew the answer. “There is a target no one has been<br />
able to crack,” Tom said, explaining that “no one” included the DEA, HSI, and a handful of<br />
government agencies from around the globe. The cybercrime FBI agents sipped from their cham-pagnay<br />
as they listened to what Tom was saying. “I think,” he said, “we should start looking at the Silk<br />
Road next.”
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